Retail giant Walmart announced today that it will be offering a prepaid iPhone in its stores starting January 11th. The iPhone will run on a $45 to $60 per month no contract, unlimited talk, text and data plan from the Straight Talk reseller, exclusively through Walmart.

Walmart is also offering a no interest fixed-monthly payment financing plan for the iPhone, if purchased with the Walmart credit card. Yes, you will be able to finance an iPhone 5 with unlimited talk, text, and data through Walmart (assuming approved credit) and Straight Talk ( a TracFone brand) for a whopping $70 a month. No word on how much you’ll actually be paying for the device after the financing has completed, though. This is a zero percent financing deal, so the $25 will never go up, and will end once the full cost of the iPhone is paid off.

With or without the monthly financing deal, the 16GB iPhone 5 will run you $649, with an 8GB iPhone 4 coming in at $449. A no contract service plan like Straight Talk’s can help save you a lot of money per year when compared with a contract plan like one through AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon. Straight Talk isn’t the first company to offer such a service for Apple’s iPhone, with Leap Wireless and Cricket doing the same this past year.

Pricing for the Straight Talk no-contract plans include:* $45 – No Contract Monthly Plan with Unlimited Nationwide Talk, Text, andData.* $60 – No Contract Monthly Plan with Unlimited Nationwide Talk, Text, and DataPLUS Unlimited International Calling to more than 1,000 destinations in Mexico,Canada, India, and in other countries.

Lol… FINALLY!!! Wonder how this is going to affect their BYOS offerings.

mac98623

“No word on how much you’ll actually be paying for the device after the financing has completed, though.”

Since it’s no interest or 0% financing, then the “actual cost you’ll be paying for the device after the financing is completed” = actual the price of the phone. According to the press release: $649 for iPhone 5 or $449 for iPhone 4.

Payments are 25 per month. So, 26 payments of of $25 for the iPhone 5 = $649 or 18 payments of $25 = $449 for iPhone 4.

The $70 a month option is $25 for the phone plus $45 for the talk/text/data plan. The $70 option will take 26 months to pay off an iPhone 5 or 18 months to pay off an iPhone 4 at “no interest.”

Brandon Dillon

“No word on how much you’ll actually be paying for the device after the financing has completed, though.”

Since it’s no interest or 0% financing, then the “actual cost you’ll be paying for the device after the financing is completed” = actual the price of the phone. According to the press release: $649 for iPhone 5 or $449 for iPhone 4.

Payments are 25 per month. So, 26 payments of of $25 for the iPhone 5 = $649 or 18 payments of $25 = $449 for iPhone 4.

The $70 a month option is $25 for the phone plus $45 for the talk/text/data plan. The $70 option will take 26 months to pay off an iPhone 5 or 18 months to pay off an iPhone 4 at “no interest.”

Awesome! Thanks for elaborating on this!

Ed_Kel

I would be cautiously optimistic with this one… Straight talk may sell the promise of unlimited data, but their overdone throttling makes your phone worthless after 2gb and if you’re looking to pay $70 a month AND have to purchase an unlocked (or at least at the “unlock price”) iPhone then you may be better off sticking with one of the big carriers. Using AT&T, if you couple my monthly payment of $85 (after tax) and the subsidized price of the iPhone, I’m curious to know if you’re actually saving any measurable amount of money by switching, or comparing, to straight talk.

Ed_Kel

I would be cautiously optimistic with this one… Straight talk may sell the promise of unlimited data, but their overdone throttling makes your phone worthless after 2gb and if you’re looking to pay $70 a month AND have to purchase an unlocked (or at least at the “unlock price”) iPhone then you may be better off sticking with one of the big carriers. Using AT&T, if you couple my monthly payment of $85 (after tax) and the subsidized price of the iPhone, I’m curious to know if you’re actually saving any measurable amount of money by switching, or comparing, to straight talk.

[Edit] I saw @mac98623 comment. The price isn’t bad if you’re factoring the cost of the phone, but I would still be careful with Straight Talk.

mac98623

I would be cautiously optimistic with this one… Straight talk may sell the promise of unlimited data, but their overdone throttling makes your phone worthless after 2gb and if you’re looking to pay $70 a month AND have to purchase an unlocked (or at least at the “unlock price”) iPhone then you may be better off sticking with one of the big carriers. Using AT&T, if you couple my monthly payment of $85 (after tax) and the subsidized price of the iPhone, I’m curious to know if you’re actually saving any measurable amount of money by switching, or comparing, to straight talk.

[Edit] I saw @mac98623 comment. The price isn’t bad if you’re factoring the cost of the phone, but I would still be careful with Straight Talk.

You are totally right about throttling. I did a little research and StraightTalk is DRACONIAN about throttling and canceling “heavy” data users. Some dude posted a YouTube tip though, where you trick Straight Talk into letting you get unthrottled unlimited data on the AT&T network. It’s a little complicated but basically, you have to buy a cheap burner android smartphone and use that Sim Card. Apparently, they’re programmed differently and go through different proxy servers where they don’t track your data usage.

About the author

Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he'll really appreciate it.

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